ALZHEMIER'S DISEASE AND DEMENTIA.

giftessiet (49)in #steemstem • 6 years ago (edited)

Sneak peek of my book"LOST"

Bethany stood quietly beside her mama's hospital bed. She had brought her flowers today, mama loved flowers. She remembered when they had lived together with papa. They had a garden and mama would spend all day tending the little roots that sprung out until theybgroq fully and blossomed.
That wasnt their life anymore. Papa had died and mama had fallen I'll. She laughed less, talked less. She didn't tend to the garden anymore.
Aunt Martha had told her to wait outside but Bethany had snuck in. She had wanted to see her mama before they took her away again.

"Mama" she called taking a step towards the bed.

"Mama....it's Betty, I brought you flowers" Bethany stretched her hand and handed her mother the roses she had hand picked from Martha's garden.
Sarah stared at the little girl handing her flowers. They thought they could kill her by sending a little child. Not today she thought to herself and burst out into a loud scream grabbing the girl by her hair and pulling violently.
Martha heard the screams and ran into the room, pulling Bethany away from her sister.

"She's your daughter" She yelled the already weeping Bethany into the shield of her arms.

"She's not my daughter...... She's trying to kill me" Sarah yelled breaking into tears as the nurses surrounded her trying to pin her before the tranquilizer was adminstered.

"You don't beleive me.....I saw her eyes, she would kill me"she cried.

" Evil......she's evil..,.she tried to kill me"

Martha guided Bethany out of the room and farther down the hall towards where other patients chartered about.
Sweet Eden's nuthouse was not how she has planned to start her day she thought to herself as she took a seat in a corner covering the ears of the sobbing five year old she held in her arms and desperately trying to drown the screams from the other end of the hallway.

Screams she damn well knew belonged to her sister.

_{Dementia (License: CCO]:
Pixabay Photos}

INCEPTION

The Onset Of Dementia is Associated With Normal Symptoms Of Aging.

It is true. The accuracy with which a little child of less than ten year's would effectively remember the names of people they meet or perhaps movies they've seen cannot be compared to that of a woman of eigthy five years. It is called Aging.
A normal biochemical process that indefinetly says you have lived life. There are a lot of symptoms. Your back starts to ache, its more difficult to read, to start to walk slowly, talk slowly, you forget stuff like dates,names, not to talk of the physical signs like wrinkles, grey hair appearance to.
If I had my way, I Would actually, literally choose to be young forever. But that's not the point.
The mental detoriation (memory loss) associated with dementia makes it hard to diagnose and very well easy to dismiss. Forgetting names momentarily would not seem like a big deal but the severity should be what is noted.
Core mental detoriation symptoms associated with dementia would include impairment to memory, communication and language, ability to focus and pay attention, visual perception and most importantly reasoning and judgment.

As dementia is not a specific disease on its own but rather is a term used to classify generally disorders associated with memory loss and mental impairment. It has to do with the damage to brain cells which interefers with the normal functioning of the brain. The classification of dementia is based on the certain part or type of brain cell damaged. When brain cells are damaged communication is impaired. In the case if Alzheimer's disease, the high level of protein activity inside the Brain makes it difficult for the brain cells to remain healthy.

Alzheimer's disease is as a result of brain protein build up.

Tau tangles and Amyloid plaques.

As scientific studies have associated this disease with rapid protein build up in the hippocampus of the brain and also the shrinking of the cella and gradual death of the neurons. This is why memory loss is often the first symptom associated with it as the hippocampus is the center of learning and memory in the brain.
The Amyloid plaques and Tau tangles are most accumulated proteins in the brains if the Alzhemier patients.

Now at this point Biochemistry comes in.

The Amyloid pathway.

Since we are discussing Alzehmier I would be focusing on what's important to us. The formation of plaques by the Amyloid pathway.
The Amyloid protein precursor is cleavedby enzymes(secretase) to give Amyloid alpha and Amyloid beta.
The Ab, Amyloid beta is the important molecule for neuronal function and it accumulates in the extracellular space of the brain to form plaques which may also cause damaging neuronal and synaptic effects and cell death.
APP is a single tranamembrane protein expressed at high levels in the brain and metabolized rapidly to by a series of proteases. Changes in the metabolism of this compound is associated with the build up of plaques in the brain.
The major determinant in the appearance of dementia is the ApoE gene.
Exclusive study of AD patients proves that some sufferrers do not develop dementia even when their brain is full of Amyloid . It is the genetic determinant. Hence associating Alzhemier and dementia to the genetic factor of inheritance. In the presence of ApoE 4 gene there is onset of dementia as plaques form. But apoE2 carriers rarely develop dementia even when diagnosed with Alzheimer.

Aggression and paranoia related to dementia thereby giving the title "senile dementia" .

When people with dementia behave in verbally or physically aggressive ways, the key to tending to them at this point is patience. Just like every health individual they have certain social, physical and psychological needs. The only difference communicating and relaying this needs to their care providers is almost impossible. In extreme cases of dementia associated with depression hallucinations and paranoia are common problems.
Three distinct set of psychological symptoms often come before the aggressiveness in the middle or late stages of dementia related diseases.

Delusions, Paranoia and Hallucination's.

Now, it all still falls back to the memory loss issue.
A patient with dementia often cannot recall certain stuff like where an item was kept, the time for an appointment, the date of an occasion. Delusions come into effect when they begin to believe in false beliefs. There's a hole in their memory and fill it up with something that seems to make logical sense. Most times leading to distrust of those around them . Paranoia is born out of fear.
A very explainable situation is one in which a patient has perhaps forgotten where he or she has kept their wallet. And they happen to have a new carer who just recently started visiting. They are deluded into believing the wallet was stolen by the carer. Hence suspicion, distrust, paranoia. In extreme cases hallucinations lead to the fear of being hurt by such individual (paranoia).

Living With Dementia.

Personal Thoughts On Caring For Loved Ones With Dementia

The cause of dementia is the most important key in its treatment. Progressive forms like Alzheimer's disease have no cure or form of treatment that slows its progression. Only the symptoms can be treated.
Most times personal care therapy wwithout the use of drugs seem effective but in the long run, extreme symptoms like depression would need to be treated.

Don't Take It Personal

Sometimes, it gets exhausting caring for someone who recongizes you today and tomorrowvis like...."Who are you ?"
Then the physical aggression too, there is no magic pill for this. It takes patience. Some times to avoid heated arguments that may lead to physical abuse try changing the subject or course if discussion.
If it is in a case of a misplaced item, having a duplicate of the same type usually helps. They dont remember where they kept the former the substitute replaces it.

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